The disgraced former FBI official who was once part of the bureau’s Trump-Russia collusion probe pleaded guilty to criminal charges for a second time, this time copping to accepting secret payments from a former intelligence agent.
Charles McGonigal, the former head of the FBI’s counterintelligence division in New York, pleaded guilty in the District to a single count of concealment of material facts for taking $225,000 in cash from an ex-Albanian operative while working for the bureau.
Federal prosecutors had charged McGonigal with nine counts, including falsifying records, concealing material facts and making false statements.
Although he was looking at a 55-year prison sentence with the nine charges, he now faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for a single criminal count.
McGonigal is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 16.
McGonigal is the fourth prominent FBI official from the Trump-Russia collusion probe to face criminal charges or be investigated. He was charged in separate indictments in New York and the District accusing him of illegally accepting payments for his work with Oleg Deripaska, a sanctioned Russian oligarch, and the Albanian intelligence official.
He was legally required to report his contacts with foreign officials to the FBI. Instead, he hid his ties and pursued lucrative business arrangements that conflicted with his job, prosecutors said.
Court filings say McGonigal took a six-figure payment from a man identified in European media outlets as Agron Neza and did favors for him in exchange, such as meeting with Albania Prime Minister Edi Rama.
McGonigal began the arrangement in August 2017 and it continued past his retirement from the FBI in September 2018, according to an indictment filed by prosecutors in the nation’s capital in January.
Prosecutors say the former agent also pressured the FBI to open a criminal foreign lobbying probe that would have benefited Mr. Rama and used the ex-Albanian officer as a confidential source.
Although McGonigal had initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, the latest court filings suggest that his legal team is working with federal prosecutors to reach a plea deal.
Last month, McGonigal pleaded guilty in New York to a single count of conspiring to launder money and violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act for his work to get Mr. Deripaska removed from the U.S. sanction list. He faces up to five years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced in New York on Dec. 14.
Mr. Deripaska, a Russian aluminum magnate with ties to President Vladimir Putin, has been investigated by U.S. officials for money laundering, wiretapping, threats against business rivals, extortion and racketeering.
As prosecutors in New York tell it, then-FBI official McGonigal and Sergey Shestakov, a court interpreter based in New York, agreed in 2021 to investigate one of Mr. Deripaska’s rivals in exchange for payments. Both defendants are accused of receiving payments through shell companies and forging signatures to keep Mr. Deripaska’s payments secret.
McGonigal made at least $25,000 as an investigator for the law firm before directly working for Mr. Deripaska. He received an initial payment of $51,000 and then payments of $41,790 each month for three months from August 2021 to November 2021, the New York indictment said.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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